Book Launch: Emily by Andrew Bailey in conversation with Margo Neale

Join us at The Book Cow as we welcome Andrew Bailey to celebrate the launch of this remarkable biography of Emily Kame Kngwarreye. An intimate portrait of one of Australia’s most celebrated artists, the book explores her extraordinary journey from Anmatyerr elder to international art icon, and the movement her work helped inspire.

ABOUT THE BOOK

Drawing on accounts from those close to her as well as previously unexamined sources, Andrew Bailey reveals the inside story of how a senior law woman from a remote part of the country came to prominence in just seven years. She has twice been represented at the Venice Biennale, and a solo retrospective of her work appeared at the Tate Modern in London in 2025.

Yet Bailey shows we still greatly underestimate Kngwarreye. He demonstrates how her striking work was a catalyst for profound national cultural change in the final decade of the twentieth century. This is the previously untold story of the emergence of contemporary Indigenous art, and a compelling insight into how Australia sees itself.

PRAISE FOR EMILY

'With a forensic eye for detail, Bailey has unpicked the layered politics and personality surrounding Kngwarreye, exposing the extraordinarily powerful forces at play around her—and the savvy and grounded personal force she clearly wielded.' - Dan Bourchier, NITV

'This is art history at its best: meticulous and obsessed with the right question, which is what it means that the most powerful Australian art of the twentieth century came from someone mainstream Australia had spent two centuries ignoring.' - Morgan Meis, art critic

ABOUT THE AUTHOR AND GUEST SPEAKER

Andrew Bailey is an economist and publisher of the weekly art newsletter, The Easel. He has held roles in the Prime Minister's office, in Treasury and McKinsey & Co; and senior roles at Optus, the Department of Climate Change and the University of Canberra.

Emeritus Curatorial  and Adj Professor  Margo Ngawa Neale is an internationally acclaimed, award-winning art curator and author and was listed in the world’s top 10 museum influencers in 2022. She worked in Arnhem land in the 1970s during the homeland movement, taught art on Christmas Island in the 1980s and later held senior and often inaugural roles  at the National Gallery Australia, Art Gallery NSW, Queensland  Art Gallery and the National Museum of Australia.  

She has authored and edited in various capacities 21 books including the Oxford Companion to Aboriginal Art and Culture two exhibition catalogues on Emily Kame Kngwarreye to accompany the inaugural retrospectives she  curated for national and international tours 1998 and 2008. Most recently she responsible for the on-going First Knowledges series with Thames and Hudson. She is of Gumbaynggirr, Wiradjuri and Irish descent with Kulin nation clan connections